When China Met Africa - review

We all know a bit about what's happening in Africa as the Chinese become the brave neo-colonialists, pouring money and expertise in and taking a great deal of influence (and raw materials) out.

Few movies have tried to show how the invasion looks at ground level.

Marc and Nick Francis's intriguing documentary concentrates on three people. One is a Chinese former salaryman who comes to Zambia to run his own business, buys four farms, is bedevilled by fractious African workers and has to sell his produce in Lusaka himself. Another is an employee of a big Chinese corporation trying to build a vital arterial road without the financial backing he needs from a cash-strapped Zambian government.

A third is the Zambian Minister for Trade, affably brown-nosing the Chinese while trying to promote his country's mining potential.

Though somewhat sketchily put together, this film tells us much about how both sides behave with each other, one lot looking beady-eyed towards future influence and the other gratefully accepting present largesse and probably pocketing a lot of the proceeds too.